Cole called for Republicans to join with President Barack Obama for a quick deal before the year-end deadline that will automatically trigger higher taxes and abrupt spending cuts. Obama, who made letting the George W. Bush-era tax rates expire for the wealthiest Americans a hallmark of his re-election campaign, would essentially be handed a major victory if such a deal came to pass.

Boehner (R-Ohio) said Wednesday he wasn’t having it.

“I told Tom earlier in our conference meeting that I disagreed with him,” Boehner told reporters after a House GOP Conference meeting, The Hill reported. “He’s a wonderful friend of mine and a great supporter of mine. But raising taxes on the so-called top 2 percent – half of those people are small-business owners that pay their taxes through their personal income tax filing every year. The goal here is to grow the economy and to cut spending.”

He added, “We’re not going to grow the economy if we raise tax rates on the top two rates. It’ll hurt small businesses. It’ll hurt our economy. That’s why it’s not the right approach. We’ll willing to put revenue on the table as long as we’re not raising rates.”

At a press conference on the Hill, today, Boehner said that it’s time for Democrats and the President to get serious about the country’s spending problem and he expressed his optimism that Democrats and Republicans will be able to work together on a solution to the crisis, “sooner rather than later.”

The “Endless Campaign”, indeed.
I wonder if AxelRoid has advised boy wonder that there is no third term in his future. Or has he worked things out with Uncle Georgie SoreOooze and has the Executive Order sitting in the top right hand drawer, that’s going to make it happen.